"Visitor With Measles Puts Area on Alert"
Chattanooga Times Free Press (TN) (www.timesfreepress.com)
(06/22/02) P. B1; Park, Carolyne

Tennessee, Georgia, and Mississippi have put their health
departments on alert since identifying a visitor who contracted
measles during a recent overseas visit to Nigeria.  Public
officials in all three states are concerned about secondary
infections after learning the woman, who is now in respiratory
isolation in a Tupelo, Miss., hospital, visited locals in
Tennessee and Georgia since returning from her trip.  Dr. Valerie
Boaz, health officer for Tennessee's Chattanooga-Hamilton County
Health Department, says only those individuals who have never had
measles or have not been sufficiently immunized are at risk;
symptoms should present by June 19 through July 4 since the
incubation time is anywhere from seven days to 18 days after
exposure.  Initial symptoms of the viral disease appear like a
cold and progress to a red, blotchy rash on the face, which
spreads to the rest of the body.  The Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention caution that untreated measles cases may lead to
diarrhea, middle ear infections, pneumonia, and in rare cases,
develop into encephalitis which may lead to convulsions,
deafness, mental retardation, or possibly death.